K-Mart to close in Mount Pleasant

The Mount Pleasant Kmart at Bowman Road will close in the coming months. A liquidation sale has begun. STAFF PHOTO BY SULLY WITTE

Opened since 1978, Kmart on Bowman Road will shut its doors the first of the year. The liquidation sale began last week.

In the weeks prior, items in the store were marked down from 30 to 50 percent.

The aging, 130,000-square-foot Big Kmart in Mount Pleasant is located in a shopping center where many of the adjacent storefronts are empty. The 17-acre shopping center was sold last year in a $5.5 million deal, and Mount Pleasant had once identified the site as one of several that could be suitable for a new town municipal complex.

Kmart traces its roots to the 19th century, when the S.S. Kresge Co. was founded. The first Kmart opened in 1962, the same year as the first Walmart store, and in 1995, the home of the “blue light special,” acquired Sears in an $11 billion buyout.

Last year corporate officials had not yet determined if the Mount Pleasant store would be a casualty of mass shuttering.

But signs indicating that everything must go was a sure signal last week.

“The Kmart store in Mount Pleasant will close to the public on a future date, which is not available at this time,” said Howard Riefs, director, corporatecCommunications. “In the meantime, the store will remain open for customers. The store will begin its liquidation sale on Oct. 27. Store closures are part of a series of actions we’re taking to reduce on-going expenses, adjust our asset base and accelerate the transformation of our business model. These actions will better enable us to focus our investments on serving our customers and members through integrated retail – at the store, online and in the home. The store in Mount Pleasant has 43 employees. They will have an opportunity to apply for positions at other Kmart and Sears stores,” he added.

Riefs said that associates and managers are not permitted to talk with the media, therefore the Moultrie News was unable to obtain any comments.

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